Phygital Is the New Digital at Cosmoscow: Exhibition Guide

Contents:

• Works from the Bajbajas series. Sacred Creatures
• The Others Will Join
• Soft Infiltration
• Untitled

In 2023, the Cosmoscow International Contemporary Art Fair celebrates its tenth anniversary. This year, the event will introduce a new permanent section, Digital, curated by the international project Instigators. This project brings together NFT artists and crypto enthusiasts, who have already implemented an NFT drop for the group Little Big and collaborated with brands such as Microsoft and Bloomberg. The new Digital section promises to become an important platform for the discussion and promotion of digital art in Russia and abroad.

The Phygital Is the New Digital exhibition, presented by the Instigators collection at Cosmoscow, will explore the relationship between digital and physical objects in contemporary art. The exhibition showcases artists' diverse approaches to this interaction and highlights how digital space influences the perception of physical works. Throughout the exhibition, viewers will be able to see unique works that illustrate the synthesis of the real and the virtual, as well as conceptual ideas about the future of art.

Works from the Bajbajas. Sacred Creatures series

The Sacred Creatures project is a collaboration between Russian multimedia artist Denis Davydov and Georgian-American artist Uta Bekai, reimagining the concept of the avatar. The artists concluded that a child's toy is the first true avatar for a person. This object, belonging exclusively to the child, receives unique superpowers from them. The project created a variety of characters based on research into national children's toys, particularly Georgian and Uzbek ones. The exhibition will feature watercolor sketches and digital versions of these works, allowing viewers to gain a deeper understanding of the artists' work and their vision of childhood.

The Others Will Join

Denis Davydov's solo project is a unique porcelain figurine of a boy dancing on on its pedestal. The artist seeks to create a parallel between a romanticized Soviet childhood and the experiences of the modern generation. This project immerses the viewer in an atmosphere of nostalgia, while simultaneously highlighting the changes in the perception of childhood across different eras. Davydov uses elements of art to provoke reflection on the connection between the past and the present, as well as how the cultural context changes for new generations.

Dancing with affectation and audacity, the living porcelain boy himself determines who and where to be, and what melody to dance to. The animation in this work simultaneously reflects the figurine of the Leningrad Porcelain Factory of the 1960s and includes elements of modernity. This creates vivid associations with popular TikTok videos, demonstrating the interaction of classical art and modern trends.

Soft Infiltration

In her project "Soft Infiltration," artist Ksenia Obukhovskaya conducts a thought experiment exploring the concept of human bodies of the future. She creates unique medical instruments designed for operations on next-generation organisms. These living beings, formed on the basis of human DNA, cells, and computer code, according to the artist's hypothesis, will be able to integrate into the human body, recognize and effectively fight diseases. Obukhovskaya believes that the process of prosthetics, which is moving towards cyborgization, will soon become the accepted medical norm. This project raises important questions about the future of medicine and the boundaries of the human body, making it relevant to modern society.

Untitled

Masks are unique artifacts that sometimes imbue their owners with special abilities. Dmitry Shabalin is collecting them using items found on online marketplaces and flea markets. Each physical object presented at the fair will be accompanied by a digital version. In the video, the mask created by the author will symbolize the evolution of the universe, where disparate elements are combined into a single whole.